Military moves tanks around in the middle of the night

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Yeah, so my BF and I went down to his home town for Labor Day weekend. Got to meet the parents, but that’s not the point.

We got to Bremond, Texas [about 1.5 hours out of Austin] around 10:30-11pm. Bremond is in the middle of nowhere. People here go to bed around 10 and they’re certainly off the street by 9. Basically, there shouldn’t be anyone out to see a government train loaded with troop transports, bridge layers, moblie Patriot missle launchers, and tanks with Patriot missle launchers, all painted in desert camo, going through the town. If a train doesn’t stop, it can be through the town in under ten minutes, possible five. However, it did stop. Not sure why. BF says it was to change tracks, that the train would be there for another 20 or so an then drive on.

Sitting at the crossing, chatting and whatnot, we realized what we were staring at after about 5 minutes. At the time it was pretty cool, seeing all those vehicles up close. Then BF noticed they weren’t the normal color [green]. His family is military and he was briefly in the Corps and Airforce at A&M, so, he knows what he’s talking about. He also knows that area very well.

The train was headed for Houston, no question; probably came from Fort Hood. The weird thing is, there are much more direct routes to Houston than the one we were sitting at. The only reason we can come up with is that the vehicle were going to be loaded onto ships, but to go where? Going to Houston to then switch tracks and go somewhere else in the state is simply a waste of time [again, more direct, less populated routes].

His best guess is that something was going to happen, the military knew, and they were sending ground assault equipment somewhere desert-y.

I’m creeped out, how bout you?

2

Well, we know it isn’t Afghanistan. Unless you saw some in mountain drab?

3

Creeped out? Heck no. If we’re sending in ground troops, it means we’re doing everything we can to get somebody without excessive civilian casualties. I’m friggin’ glad you saw them.

Le Sang

4

What you probably saw was equipment going to or from Fort Hood (an armored division or so) or Fort Still (field artillery school) or Fort Bliss (air defense artillery school) and some training grounds. With the commitment the Army has in the Middle East and the desert warfare school in California, much of the Army’s stuff is now tan camouflage instead of the European green that was predominant during the bad old days of the USSR. Don’t jump to any conclusions based on what some Aggie ROTC jock thinks.

5

I second Spavined Gelding’s comment. I believe the normal color these days is the desert camo, not green.

Besides, if ground troops go anywhere, it’s not gonna be some big secret done under the dark of night. You just can’t move these armored divisions around the world without someone noticing. Besides, the M1 Abrams is too heavy for practical airlift. It has to be put on ships. Not much surprise there.

Oh, and the military likes to do things at odd hours sometimes. War isn’t always 9 to 5.

6

The train was going south to Houston. I said I was creeped out only because we saw this rather large equipment transfer about one week before the WTC. It just seems eerie.

Aggie. Yes, but not anymore.
ROTC. The Corps of Cadets is not ROTC. He actually was there by gubernatorial appointment to the Airforce facilities.
Jock. More of a biker-boy than jock.

7

So true. If they could, this thread wouldn’t exist…